SPEAKER: Dixie Daly

Inventor/Product Developer/Author

Passion, innovation and intense business savvy coupled with a lifelong desire to help others, Dixie Daly is living her lifelong dream through Tickled Pink Boutique.

Dixie Daly is the Founder and CEO of Tickled Pink Boutique and has created over 22 products including Tickled Pink® Chocolate, Pink-A-Bella® Pet Shampoo line, has written a “Pink” jingle that is now a cell phone ringtone and her latest design, ‘Sassy Blitz,’ a fashionable scarf with many purposes.  Dixie combines her entrepreneurial energy with a lifelong passion for helping others, and generously shares her expertise and extensive network of contacts to encourage other entrepreneurs to reach their goals.  Dixie’s mission is to inspire, educate and support others on the best ways to pursue their dreams.  She generously shares her expertise and extensive network of contacts to encourage other entrepreneurs!

Dixie Daly is truly Tickled Pink to share her Inspiration and Enthusiasm with you along this journey!

Connect with Dixie Daly at TickledPinkBoutique.com & Facebook.com/DixieDalyPinkOn

PANELIST: Ian Osborn

2010 DaVinci Commercial Product of the Year Award Winner - Founder, Wild Ideas Light Company

Ian Osborn is a successful inventor and manufacturer. His area of expertise is electrical circuitry and LED lighting. He has done custom circuitry and lighting for a variety of designers and architects before patenting his own designs. Ian currently has four patents pending using his unique high-intensity miniature products. As president of Wild Ideas Light Company, Ian Osborn has manufactured products in both China and the US.

PANELIST: Jerome Rifkin

2010 DaVinci Inventor of the Year - CEO and Founder of Tensegrity Prosthetics

Some entrepreneurs embody classic rags-to-riches tales. But the 2010 winner of the DaVinci Inventor of the Year Award, Jerome Rifkin, offers that story a new twist: Injuries to innovation.

His first injury occurred while he was cycling home from a University of Florida research lab. A personal injury attorney hit Rifkin in the chest with his Jeep, knocking him over and parking on his hand.

While Rifkin was still recovering from that injury, he fell off his mountain bike while pedaling rapidly through a flat greenway. His clipless pedals refused to let go of one of his feet, resulting in a sheared femur that left him bedridden for three months.

In terms of mobility, Rifkin was back at square one. He progressed from being bedridden to using a wheelchair, then a cane. After years of physical therapy, he finally graduated to unassisted walking.

The implications of re-learning to walk weren’t lost on him, and out of these experiences, his company, Tensegrity Prosthetics, was born.

Tensegrity Prosthetics is launching a revolution in prosthetic feet, offering comfort and stability where as previous products provided rigidity, causing an irregular walking gait. 

PANELIST: Rasch Young

2010 DaVinci Software Product of the Year Award Winner - Founder of Hybir, Inc.

Rasch Young started hacking on an Apple ][ in 1980. (Hacking is being used in this context as a synonym for exploratory programming.) Rasch never looked back and continues to program almost every day. Rasch worked on hundreds of projects along the way before founding Hybir. The most notable was the NPAC (Number Portability Administration Center). If you have ever made a phone call to a phone in North America you most likely used software Rasch had a hand in writing. Rasch created the Hybir Technology and built the vast majority of the launch version of the Hybir Backup product. He even did some of the artwork. He continues to apologize for that claiming that it does not fit with the “Do Good” philosophy.

Rasch is a dedicated husband and father. He enjoys Skiing, Snowboarding, Surfing and Wind Surfing. He does not enjoy golf, although he plays occasionally. Rasch was born in Minnesota and lives in Colorado.

HOST: Brian Tsuchiya

Founder of Startup Guru

Brian Tsuchiya is an authority on crowdfunding, after spending the last 8 years researching a variety of methods he has unique experiences with crowds. Including having a company entirely funded with "sweat equity" from over one hundred people. Managing that many shareholders is unique for a privately held startup. Brian also has raised over $2M of private equity.

Brian is the founder of StartUp Guru and started his entrepreneurial journey 18 years ago and has since launched ten startups. Startup Guru is the culmination of this extraordinary journey. He has openly shared for the first 40 years of his life he primarily served himself and lived a life without purpose.  Then in June of 2006 he read a book that would change his life forever.  He embarked on a journey that connected his life purpose with his entrepreneurial career.  Through this work he understood his patterns and defined his life in a way that revealed his purpose.  Forged in him was the way of the entrepreneur.